The Old Dog's Swimming Lesson

Nobody’s Opinion: Remember that old saying “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks?” I don’t know what fool said this, but I suspect he wasn’t an old dog himself.

The good news is: even old dogs can learn just about anything, even if it takes a few more tricks than it use to.

I learned a few new tricks when I was trying to transfer old VHS tapes onto CD disc with my new VHS/CD tape recording machine that I got for Christmas.

My goal, on Christmas Eve, was to take some old home VHS videos and put them on CD’s to give as presents to the family on Christmas Day. And the one VHS tape I choose to transfer was over two hours long.

I went through the whole two hour process five times, failing each time, before I discovered that the tape I was trying to transfer was “protected.” That’s ten hours of seeing the same home movies over and over and over ….the directions failed to mention this little bit of information, or what to do about it.

But, I did notice one thing. Each time I watched the tape, I learned something new. I discovered that I am like my own father in more ways that I thought…and also just how very incredibly important men are in all children’s lives.

All this from watching my three year old son’s first swimming lesson at the local pool, over and over…

At the time it was taken, so many years ago, I was a single parent. Zooming in on five seventeen-year old, tan and gorgeous lifeguards jumping into the pool seemed a good place to start.

Not only was the view nice, but I remember being incredible grateful for these young men who were going to teach my son to swim.

I did not at that time, see the other perhaps even more important lesson: men teaching little boys how to become men.

And here how they did it:

First…Each instructor gets three kids. He forces the kids to jump into his arms while he stands only a few feet into the pool, ready to catch them. When he does, he keeps their heads above the water. Each kid jumps three times.

Second…They jump again. He moves back, and gets their faces wet, just a little bit. Three more jumps a piece.

Third…Each kid gets on a floating board and kicks, while the instructors get the boys in a game of chasing the other instructors and their kids on boards into a game of chase and spit. Every one gets a mouthful of water and spits at the “opposing” team, getting them use to getting their mouths full of water and spitting it out, making a fun game, and getting the kids used to kicking.

Fourth…back to the side where they take turns jumping in again---This time the instructor dunks their heads underwater, very quickly.

Fifth…he gets them into the water, and on three, he dunks them.

This day the water was cold, all these little kids were shivering. I thought it was kind of cruel having lessons so early in the morning.

Now, here’s comes the “other” lesson.

One little guy started to cry…and the instructor said firmly, but gently, “Are you crying? Stop crying. You can’t cry---it’s against the rules.”

A woman would (probably) have immediately let that boy quit the lesson. It’s our nature. We see them as babies at that age. But these “babies” were not only learning how to swim, but to become fearless men. They were learning how to face a somewhat scary and physically uncomfortable situation and how not only, not to cry, but face their fear and even have fun.

They were learning how to succeed.

One of the most important lessons of life, hard to explain, and if not taught to you by a parent, hard to grasp.

By the end of the lesson, when all the kids were told to jump off the diving board into their lifeguards arms, the little crier jumped right in.

He was not crying.

These young lifeguards were so unlike most of the boys I had dated and known who seemed to always be more concerned about what they could get for themselves--- whether it was drugs or sex. Even though these lifeguards were only seventeen, they were more mature than most of the men I knew.

Divorce has disrupted this very important lesson that men transfer to humanity---what it means to toughen up and become adults.

And we have a country full of children who were raised by women. Some of them run our state department.

Even though I did not understand this important swimming lesson at the time, my son did… and he was only three. Of course, he has always been smarter then me.

He still is. He has grown up to be an intelligent, mature, and fearless young man.

Nevertheless, I knew enough to know he needed to be around as many men as I could get him around. Thank God he loved sports.

Oh…there was a spot on the film when my son, who was three years old, asked his mother innocently, “Joy, are you talking to yourself?”

And yes, I was. That’s an old trick I can’t seem to get rid of.

Now I talk to you. Just be glad I didn’t post my two hour “swimming lesson.”

The old dog is still learning.